In honor of last weekend’s season finales of Turn: Washington’s Spies and Orphan Black (which were both fantastic), I have made a list of other favorite series finales. Most of these finales are attached to personal memories, and some are just really good episodes of television. All these shows affected me in different ways at different times in my life, but I felt a real sense of loss when they ended. There were a couple great finales this year, but I did not include them because it is likely they will make my list of Best Episodes of 2017. As long as you do not watch the videos, there should not be any big spoilers.

1. Sex and the City: I was in high school when this show started, and I used to watch it at night when my parents were in bed, because my mother would have never approved. When I got to college, it was the show that everyone watched. It ended my junior year in college and I remember watching it with my roommates at our apartment in Elon, North Carolina. I would actually have preferred for Carrie to end up with Aiden, but I was happy with the way the other three women’s stories were wrapped up.

2. Parenthood: Jason Katims knows how to do a series finales, as evidenced by Friday Night Lights also being on this list. I do not like too much ambiguity in my series finales, and this let me know that the Bravermans would all be okay. I watched this finale at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas surrounded by other Parenthood fans for an ATX Television Festival event. There was something cathartic being in a theater full of people, all of whom were sobbing.

3. Sons of Anarchy: I got into SOA in the middle of season three. I had put off watching it because of the subject matter, but could not ignore the critics raving about it. It also came to me at a time in my life when I needed to just completely lose myself in a world so unlike my own. When I moved to Austin, I bonded with one of my new friends over our love of Charlie Hunnam and the show, and we started watching the episodes together each week at my apartment. Obviously, I wish every character could have had a happy ending, but that is not what this show was about. It was about dealing with the consequences of the life each of them had chosen, and the actions they had taken along the way.

4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I do not really have a fun story for where I was when I watched the finale of this show. I actually think I was alone in my parent’s basement, which sounds kind of creepy. I got into this show late, and I don’t think I had even caught up on all the seasons yet, but wanted to watch the finale live. I did not really know what was happening at the time, but have obviously gone back and watched the entire series several times since then. This speech still brings me to tears every time I watch it:

These are my favorite quotes from the past two weeks, mostly from shows currently on the air, but also other random things I happen to be watching.

Game of ThronesLady Olenna: The Lords of Westeros are sheep. Are you a sheep? No. You’re a dragon. Be a dragon.

GrantchesterSidney: It’s one thing for someone to accuse you of not belonging. It’s another to know it in your heart that they’re right.

The Bold TypeOliver: Real is good. Real is what makes you who you are.

YoungerLiza: You sure know a lot for denying you have anything to do with the stuff.Redmond: Well, what else am I supposed to do alone on a Friday night after an entire bottle of rosé and seeing an ex on Instagram with his new boy toy in Costa Rica?

KilljoysGander: I can give you whatever you hunger for.Delle Seyah: Said every gross man ever.

Wynonna EarpDolls: Neutral men are the devil’s allies.

Turn: Washington’s SpiesMary: The man you are is a man who would do anything for his friends.

Robert: Those whose sit on the picket fence are impaled by it.

Orphan BlackFelix: My sister and I are orphans, you see, and, um, we could’ve ended up anywhere. We could’ve ended up in any family. And if we had, we would’ve been entirely different people. But my mum, Siobhan, this woman, come on, this woman… This woman, she chose us as her own. We are who we are because she carried two little London urchins on her wings to Canada. Watching her raise my sister, watching my sister raise her own daughter, finding my biological sister… it’s quite mad. It’s taught me that we are all… mysterious works of chance. Of choice. Of nature versus nurture. So, to my galaxy of women, thank you for the nurture.

These are my favorite quotes from the past two weeks, mostly from shows currently on the air, but also other random things I happen to be watching.

GrantchesterSidney: This is the life we are here for. We owe it to ourselves to live it.

Preacher
Jesse: This woman last night, she told me about some secret organization with designs on world domination. You know about that?Cassidy: Yeah. Sure. Which one? Is it Z.O.G.? Rosicrucians, Reptilians? Secret society of alien lizards. They impersonate celebrities in an attempt to take over the planet through popular culture. Is that it?
Jesse: …No.

WillAlice: You’re a man. Don’t talk to me about not being free.

Marlowe: Greatness comes at a cost. Yours is to endure your guilt.

Animal KingdomSmurf: Everything’s fine. Bring your gun.

The Bold TypeKat: Open a bottle of gin. Chase it with nothing. Start typing.

Sutton: I can’t have my hand up there an hour before I’m supposed to shake it with the entire ad sales team.

SuitsHarvey: You know I have more than one trick, right?Mike: No, I kow you think you do, but just because you put on a different costume doesn’t make it a different trick.Harvey: Yeah, I liked you better when you were drunk.Mike: I liked you better when I was drunk too.

Queen of the SouthEl Santo: I will not be infected by your faithless deals!Teresa: And yet, here we are.

Guero: I’m not saying I’m not gonna kill you. I just…I’m not gonna kill you right now.

KilljoysBanyan: I thought you were just the funny one.
Johnny: I multitask.

D’avin: I know I should feel worse about punching an old blind dude, but I don’t, and I’m cool with that.

Playing HouseMaggie: I want to shove my mouth full of meat, and then I wanna hit the dance floor!

Bob the DragQueen: We’re all born naked, and the rest is drag!

Turn: Washington’s SpiesAnna: I don’t just have a job to do. I have a job to pretend to do.

Orphan BlackKrystal: She’s been poisoned…by big cosmetics. What about that is confusing?

Since the ATX Television Festival, my schedule has been little wonky. So, here are my favorite quotes from the past two and a half weeks, mostly from shows currently on the air, but also other random things I happen to be watching.

Orphan BlackAlison: Poop on a stoop!

I’m Dying Up HereEdgar: That is not how a bladder functions.Gabe: Shut up, Edgar. I’m Jewish, you’re Mexican, which automatically makes me closer to being a doctor than you.

Downward DogMartin: I think, so often I forget the really, really obvious things in life. Because I don’t think it’s all that hard to be happy. I…I think you just have to be grateful. Like, you have to remember to be grateful for what’s right in front of you. Because me and Nan are really, really different. Like…like, we’re, like, 60% compatible at best. And, like, we have these huge issues we have to work out. But, like, when you’re always running around looking for what’s wrong with everything you just – you just end up miserable. Yeah, like, I’m a trash dog and she’s, like, a fancy lady, but we have each other, and that’s what’s important. We’re not alone. And for that…for that I’m honestly, really, truly grateful.

Martin: One thing I’ve always wanted to ask is just, like, what if we never got out of bed? Like, ever. Why are we so convinced it would be bad? Like, that might – that might solve everything. Or we could not try my suggestion, and we could just, like, keep getting out of bed every day expecting somehow to achieve a different result, even though that’s the actual dictionary definition of insanity. I mean, I don’t know. Maybe it’s worth a try.

iZombieLiv: He escaped.
Justin: How’d that happen?Liv: Said the guy who showed up late.

12 MonkeysCole: Kill me. Kill the witness. It doesn’t matter because you’ll still be afraid of yourself.

Old Jennifer: Hello, egg. I’m chicken.

Young Jennifer: We’re not brave.Old Jennifer: But you can be a better me than I was.

Turn: Washington’s SpiesSamuel: This is not about them, Robert. This about something greater than them, and us.

Abe: I killed him! I killed Thomas. I killed my brother. I killed…I killed Thomas. I started the riots at King’s College. It was a prank that went wrong, but I started it and I…felt responsible for his life, so I took it. I took his intended. I took his inheritance. I took his good Tory name, but it wasn’t me! It was never me. You ask who I am, but I don’t know. I buried that man along with my brother. I thought that maybe one day I’d meet him again in the soul of the son that I named after him, and on that day I’d tell him that I lied. Then I lied to try and make things right, but it didn’t work. It didn’t work. But I can’t lie anymore. And as for these crimes that I’m accused of committing, my only regret is that I didn’t commit them sooner.

CasualLaura: You could go talk to her.Alex: Grow down, will ya?

Animal KingdomDeran: Hey, can we not talk about our mom in the strip club right now? Thank you.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor ChroniclesSarah: If you’re gonna be a hero, you gotta learn how to drive stick.

KilljoysD’Avin: So, we’re not gonna talk at all about your people flooding me with magic green shit while floating naked in a tub?Khlyen: That would be my preference.

These are my favorite quotes from the past two weeks, mostly from shows currently on the air, but also other random things I happen to be watching. (Apologies for posting this late. I was in an ATX Television Festival bubble all weekend and forgot.)

12 MonkeysDeacon: Die as a pacifist or live as a man.Dr. Eckland: Violence doesn’t make a man.Deacon: No, but it’s a good way to unmake one.

Peaky BlindersTommy: You can change what you do. You can’t change what you want.

CasualBeth: Is this your daughter?Alex: Niece, but we’re actually the same person.Laura: Uh, no, I’m better adjusted.Alex: She is.

PreacherTulip: What happened, Preacher? Jesus take your wheel?

Game of ThronesLady Olenna: I wonder if you’re the worst person I’ve ever met. At a certain age, it’s hard to recall.

Jane the Virgin
Xo: Where is that music coming from?
Jane: Oh, from my pants.

Turn: Washington’s Spies
Robert: You are a boy, playing a man, playing a spy, and each one of them a liar.

The Flash
Cisco: This is so trippy. Like, Marty-and-the-Polaroid trippy.

Eddie: This all keeps getting crazier and crazier.

New Girl
Nick: You are the *least* qualified person to call themselves a doctor of love. Exhibit A: you dated me. I rest my case.

Nick: You treat an outside wound with rubbing alcohol. You treat an inside wound with drinking alcohol. That’s science.

Schmidt: I just can’t stand to be in here any longer! Surrounded by these underpants! Red ones! And yellow ones! And blue ones! And pink ones! And this woman, with her brazier slash teddy! Underpants everywhere! They’re driving me nuts! I feel like I got underpants all over my body!

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Ward: This is great. We finally got the team back together!

iZombie
Ravi: Can we just talk about you being a zombie? Brain eating, being undead. These are things you can discuss at length with me, but I can’t give you the…girlfriend experience.
Liv: I don’t think that means what you think it means.

Clive: They didn’t get this at IKEA
Liv: No, this is what Rumpelstiltskin carves for you when you promise him your firstborn.

Dylan: Look, Beetlejuice, I don’t remember saying your name three times, so stay the hell out of my business.

Arrow
Ra’s: Oliver Queen is alive only in the past. He is forgotten.

Felicity: How did you get in here?
Thea: My dad’s a super villain and you…left your door’s unlocked.

Diggle: There’s only one thing left of him now.
Laurel: And what’s that?
Diggle: Us.
Thea: Gone but never forgotten.